Lightly sprinkle the Bokashi bran onto the bottom of the bucket; a light dusting is all that is needed (i.e. do not fully cover the bottom with the bran).
Add your first layer of food scraps/waste to the bucket (on top of the light dusting of bran). The first layer should be about 1-inch thick, so if you need to collect scraps for a couple of days, do that before starting. Smaller scraps or pieces of food waste break down faster, so cut larger pieces, like banana peels or pieces of bread, into 1-inch pieces or smaller before putting them into the bucket.
Lightly sprinkle the first layer with Bokashi bran - just a light dusting, not a solid layer. If your first layer of scraps contains any meat, dairy, fats or oil-heavy foods, sprinkle some extra bran over those scraps.
Lightly stir up the contents to distribute the Bokashi bran (and the microbes that are on it) throughout your layer of scraps.
Open a plastic bag, like a large ziplock or trash bag, and put it in the bucket on top of the scraps like it was a trashcan. Cover the food scraps and bran mixture with the plastic bag and then using a plate, a frisbee, or anything else laying around that is relatively flat, fits in the bucket, and won’t break if you push on it a little bit, push down on the waste scraps with your hands using the plastic bag as a barrier and the flat object for uniform compression. After pressing down, you can place something heavy in or on top of the plastic bag to create consistant weighted compression, but that is not necessary. NOTE: Compressing the contents ensures adequate contact between the food scraps and the microbes on the Bokashi bran. It also helps to remove any air spaces between the materials and forces any extra liquid in the system to drain lower.
After compressing the waste scraps and bran mixture, put the lid on the bucket and put it somewhere dark and cool, like under your sink, in the back of your pantry, or even in your basement.